Beneath a Pale, Shattered Moon
by N3Ber1us
Summary: A series of seemingly never-ending dreams have been plaguing Jaune Arc for weeks now. Dreams of blood and fire, of men and monsters. But hey, they're just dreams, right?
1. Chapter 1:Waking Nightmare

**Sooo...**

**I have no excuses other than I kinda lost my muse for well, a while...**

**Honestly this little piece is just to get the brain juices running. Due note my previous two fanfics aren't dead they're just... Well I honestly having some trouble continuing them for a reason or two, so PLEASE FORGIVE ME!**

**That said, whether or not this turns into its own full fic is up in the air right now, what with finals coming up right now. **

**And with that ****unrelated**** note, lets get started now~!**

* * *

Dream(1)

It was quite funny really, how it all started; there'd been no great epiphany, no dramatic moment when fates wheel finally turned upon its crooked axis. There was no great awakening for some chosen hero. There was just a sort of... feeling. Not quite comfort, more so the distinct lack of discomfort than anything else. For the briefest of blissful moments everything was at peace; no niggling moments of self doubt, no guilt in failing a family legacy. Just a soft, quite surety in the loneliness.

Then came a vision; it was the hazy, double-vision esque sight that greeted a waking dreamer, there in between the moments of sleep and wakefulness. There was a promise there too, though for the life of me I could not remember it; a silent solemn oath I only knew had to be fulfilled.  
_  
'Ahh, you've found yourself a Hunter...'_

And at last, I woke to the smell of decay.

Woke with my back on a rickety old medical table, within the confines of what appeared to be a decrepit and long abandon (or perhaps just neglected) building. Peeling walls were lined with tall bookshelves, which themselves were in turn lined with moldering books and jars filled with things I was fairly sure were long past they're expiring date, and even some of the floorboards had loosed. Though the smell of the room hit me the hardest; rot and copper and formaldehyde, and just the faintest whiff of alcohol struggling for a foothold to keep the air sterile in spite of the odds.

This was where I woke, and for the longest time I just lay there.

_But seriously, just what was causing all that racket down there?_

* * *

There was an odd sort of comfort in just laying there. Relief washed over me and exhaustion evaporated from my bones, and at last I heaved a heavy sigh. Shitty as this place may be, it was still leagues better than that ratty old apartment; at least the atmosphere was more bearable. But here-wherever here even was- there was an alien sense of serenity, dare I say, even peace in the empty silence.

And then the scratching started. Somewhere below me, so was I on an upper floor then? That thought aside there was definitely something below me stirring up one hell of a racket, and as much as I just wanted to lie there on my bed, er, table, whatever was down there was getting louder. And closer.

Climbing hesitantly down from the table, I noticed further details from the room; place looked like a clinic, or at least it was supposed to be; it looked Atalasian, if only several centuries to late. The floorboards creaked under me and whatever thing was stumbling about here with me. Giving the place one good look over I noticed only two potential ways out. Two doors flanked either side of the room, both leading either further in or out of the building, it was hard to tell. I tried the one on the right-hand side first only to find it locked firmly shut, that left the one on the left then.

Strangely, as I made my way there something caught my eye; there, on top one of the chairs was a peculiar note.

_'Seek Paleblood to transcend the hunt'_

Don't know why, but something about that hastily written scrawl just unnerved me. Pushing pass that I made to open the door, which was easier said than done, thing was _heavy_ and it took most of my strength to open it, or maybe that said more about me if I couldn't get a stupid door to open right.

It opened up to a staircase, faintly illuminated by slivers of sunlight clawing its way in through a filthy window, at its foot I could faintly make out another room; a ground-floor maybe? I took the stairs slowly and deliberately, timing my footfalls with my noisy neighbors racket, trying my best to keep the weirdness of my surroundings from getting to me all the while some tiny part of me decided it would be a perfect time to remember all those horror movies my sisters forced me to watch. This did very little to help calm my nerves.

And then I heard it; the heavy rap-tap-tap of claws on wood. Hoarse, panting breaths from a heavy set chest. The wet, ripping of flesh, and the crunch of bone.

At the bottom was another room, much like the one I woke up in, if slightly larger, but it was hard to see much. A further ways ahead, a singular wall lantern illuminated the rest of the room, _and the thing causing the noise.__  
__  
_I was reminded of the stuffed Beowolfs my parents kept in the family training room, though the thing in front of me was anything but; It's got the fur and facial structure of a Beowolf, but that was where most of the similarities ended, everything else was just so blatantly _wrong_. It lacked the characteristic bone plating Grimm had. Its limbs were grotesquely long, but just set human enough to hit the deepest pits of the Uncanny Valley. Worse still, its hind legs were splayed rather that be directly beneath, giving the not-beowolf a gait more akin to a lizard rather than what any mammal should ever posses. In its claws and between its teeth was a lump of flesh that may have been at some point a man.

I want to say I stood my ground, that I fought tooth n' nail against this monster like a proper Arc would, should. But I didn't.

I tried to run, to hide, I really did, but the not-beowolf was the size of a small horse, bigger than my parents dummies, and it was coming at me from the only way out, and it was coming fast.

I tried to look away from the thing, my head hurt something fierce the more I looked at it; _At its gaping maw, at the bits of something sickeningly red caught between rows of too many teeth. I really did try not to see the tattered scraps of cloth that clung to its matted fur, to the belt stretched taut over its waist_. All I could do was run with tears in my eyes.

I didn't get very far.

In reality it must have been over in a few moments, but it was still far to long for me. I felt those fearsome claws dig into me as it pounced shrieking a desperate sound that was _far_ to human for something that sounded so animal. Felt as it tore into my back with a sickening symphony of flesh tearing and bone crunching. I tried crawling away, survival instincts demanding it of me even as the thing pressed its weight on my shattered ribs.  
_  
__please._

I watched as the thing latched its yellowed teeth on my outstretched arms. I _screamed _in pain worse than anything I'd ever felt before, as the thing pulled, flesh and bone ripping as the beast _tore _my arms from me.  
_  
__Please!_

i tried kicking it. I flailed the bloody stumps that were my arms. I tried anything,**_ everything_** to squirm away from it, but nothing worked. I just felt it_ as it tore strips of myself into its maw dripping with thick, caustic crimson liquid.__  
_  
**_PLEASE!_****_  
_**  
_"Don't let me die" _I begged, I pleaded, to whatever god was out there.

_Just please!__  
__  
__"I don't want to die here!"__  
_  
The last thing I saw were those yellowed teeth. The instant it took for it to crush my skull felt like eternity.

And then at last, there was blessed darkness

* * *

I woke to hard stone, and opened my eyes to lilies and blooms.

Panic woke me fully in that instant. I pressed my hands against the sides of my head where the beast had crunched down. I startled when I realized I even _had_ hands.

"Was tha-... was I just dreaming? No, but... am I still?" This place certainly did have an unearthly, almost ethereal quality to it. There was a garden filled with small, white flowers the likes of which I've never seen, which swayed gently and mesmerizingly in the occasional faint breeze. Rows of odd, lumpy stones jutted out haphazardly, forming a sort of perimeter around the place. The only notable structure in the place was a small, run-down building of brick and stone whose style I could not accurately place, though it had hints of either Valian or Atalasian in it. The sky was murky gray and cloudy, and in the distance, I saw countless pillars rise up from the fog cover below and up into the night sky, almost as if to hold up the sky itself. All of this was illuminated by the pale light of the solitary unbroken moon hanging forlornly in the sky, larger and brighter than I've seen my entire life.

...

...

_...what_

I've gone mad. That was the only explanation, the alternatives were to terrible to consider. That's right, I'm just crazy right? I'm going to wake any time now in a nice padded cell.  
_  
__"Please just let me wake now"__  
_

Nothing. Absolutely nothing then that only meant...

"This then... am I dead?" No answer came, not that I expected one.

Well, only one way to make sense of this mess, I made my way towards the building, hoping against hope for something, _anything_ that would make any sense of this.

I barely made it up the first steep before I was on my ass again. Something tapped my shoe, though with what happened to me, felt more like I stepped on a bear trap. My eyes must've been as wide as saucers now as I saw what grabbed me; it couldn't have been more than a foot tall, barely reaching my knees, and it was skeletal, a thin sheet of skin stretched tautly over its bones, all in all it looked eerily similar to a zombified fetus.

I could've easily crushed the thing right then and there but after everything, I was just to scared to do anything other than sit down stupidly. It only got worse as more of them popped out of the ground in the same spot, all of them slowly crawling towards me. I slammed my eyes shut, and just prayed it'd be quick. But nothing happened, I peeled them back, slowly, afraid the moment I opened them I'd wake to darkness once more. Instead I was meet with an odd sight; far from any sort of attack, the things regarded me with an odd mix of curiosity and appreciation, almost reverence, all of them having gathered in a small crowd near my feet.

They eyed me up appraisingly for a moment, before turning to one another and chattering in a soft, unknown language. They looked like they were discussing something, occasionally gesturing to each other, to me, or just waving their arms around like they were having a collective spasm. Whatever they were talking about, they seemed to have reached a conclusion, diving beneath the ground once more, before arising, jostling for position to hold up-

_"Brothers, those look vicious" _

They'd clumped up into two groups each holding up several tools, five in total. One group, unbelievably, held up a pair of guns, old guns, like _really _old, the kind I've only really seen in the old Arc armory. The other group held up the remaining tools-rather weapons, but it felt kinda wrong to call them that-they were ugly, brutal things, weapons only to those of unsound mind; one was little more than a crude slab of iron fashioned into the shape of a saw and stuck to a curved handle, the other two were only marginally better, one was a simple axe wrapped and bandages and with a head of brutal stone, the last one was quite possibly the oddest of the trio; A cane, at least until one took a closer look, it was edged, and the end came to a point like a spear.

I must be an idiot, because it actually took me a moment to understand what they wanted of me. They wanted me to choose between them. The last thing I wanted was to take one of them. Seriously, was I just supposed to accept some random weapons from a group of undead fetuses? But then I remembered the not-beowolf, were there more of those things out there, in the nightmare somewhere?

"I, uh-... this is nice and all, but I can't choose. What do you guys think?"

They looked like they weren't ready to be questioned, but to the little guys' credit, they seemed about as enthused to try as they were to do anything else. It was kinda heartwarming in a creepy sense. They jostled at one another for a bit, before coming to what I assume was an accord, because the rest withdrew back down, taking the axe and cane with them, along with an ornate pistol and left only the ones holding aloft a shotgun-looking weapon, a blunderbuss if I could recall correctly, and the handsaw thing, with its stained teeth looked about as viscous as the beowolf-thing's. All things considered a good weapon. Not that my Sister Blanc would've agreed; she'd probably be weeping tears of blood if she saw me ever holding this thing.

"This... you want me to take these?" apparently so, because the moment I picked them up, they burst into a round of applause, though there seemed to be only one dissenter, who sulkily sunk back into the ground. Both weapons looked old and worn, but were surprisingly well made from what I could tell; They had a weight to them, not quite unwieldy, it actually seemed quite fitting all things considered.

They even gave me some straps to hold them, along with this notebook. it didn't seem to be anything special, unlike the weapons, but its one of the few things I own that I can consistently keep clean of blood. I've started using it as a journal now, right now would be a good example, use it to keep track of this place. This place, its strange, I desperately don't want to remember this place, but something in me is _terrified_ of forgetting it, or maybe its just cause I finally feel needed here. Don't like that thought all that much, makes me feel no better than the beasts. But forgetting things, losing them. Its worse than the beast, worse than the blood. Besides I feel better just writing these things down rather than talking to myself, helps my sanity a little better.

After that though, I was still lacking in the ways of answers.

"Hey! uh... thanks for the gifts I guess? But what do I do now?" As one they pointed at a stone, a-tombstone-I realized, one of many, all around the garden;_ just how many had gone for this many to be left? _A bunch of the little guys rose from the ground in front of it and began waving me over. They'd seemed friendly enough to me, what was I to lose in trusting them further?

The grave was the bottom-most one, and tentatively I leaned down and reached out a hand towards them. A moment passed and nothing happened; I was just about to ask them what the point of this was when the world fell out from under me.

The transition was so sudden I didn't even get a chance to scream. And then I was surrounded by darkness, standing on nothing. I almost had another panic attack till I noticed something in the near distance; A pale light sat slightly above the 'ground' and as I made my way there I noticed it was, in fact, a lantern. I saw the skeletons of many more at the edge of its illumination.

As I knelt down to investigate the sole living light here, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as a tingling sensation crept up over my body. An image formed at the forefront of my mind; it was the hazy, double-vision esque sight that greeted a waking dreamer, there in between the moments of sleep and wakefulness, it was a clinic, old and abandon with peeling walls and long bookshelves...

It was the last thing I saw before slipping awake to a nightmare.

* * *

I woke to the smell of decay.

Woke with my back on loosed floorboards, in a decrepit and long abandoned building, with the sound of the heavy rap-tap-tap of claws on wood, and the hoarse, panting breaths from a heavy set, inhuman chest. I woke to this and I knew...

_My nightmare was only just beginning._

* * *

**So yah...**

**So just give whatever opinions you guys have, flames, hate, insults, praises I'll gladly take it all!**

**This has been N3Ber1us and thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2:Lycanthrope

**Devil May Cry is back baby~! And I have no regrets putting this of for so long just to play the game!**

**Side note: V is officially my new favorite DMC character.**

* * *

Dream(2)

I don't really remember what happened between when I touched the lamp and when I woke again, didn't matter much in the end. I recognized my surroundings the instant I opened my eyes. "No..." I muttered as the realization hit me hard "no, no, no, no! Not here again, why am I here again!?" I was back, back to where this damned nightmare all started for me. And that only meant-

Huh, the Gods must have a _sick_ sense of humor.

It must've heard me, cloudy grey eyes radiating malignant hunger were the first signs of the beasts arrival. Desperately, I scrambled for the gun, yet the not-beowolf evidently didn't even register me as a threat as it continued stalking forward, it really wasn't wrong to assume that.

Finally managing to bring the blunderbuss to bear, I pulled the trigger, filling the air between me and the beast with countless pellets, as I barely managed to keep the recoil from wrenching the rest of my arm from its socket.

The beast roared once more in a voice that sounded _far_ to human to have come from something of such wretched a shape. Pain burned throughout its form as dozens of pellets dug into its flesh and melting down to silvery liquid agony to wreck further havoc across its body. It staggered from the shot, but I realized too little too late that it wasn't anywhere near the amount of damage needed to kill the thing. I tried to line up a second shot, but it'd finally recognized me as a threat, and it wasn't about to give me a second chance.

The gun was torn from my grasp by the things fearsome claws, the same claws that gutted me a moment later. You ever seen those scenes in movies where a guy gets their guts strewn about all over and they take a moment to stare at it before finally keeling over? I can say with absolute certainty that can indeed happen in real life. The only mercy was that I didn't have to suffer much this time; the shock kept me from feeling much pain, till the blood loss kicked in and finally did me in.

I hoped I'd wake in that garden once more. Happened the last time the beast killed. But this gods damned place seemed committed to crushing my hopes. Seems like a ticket to instant sanctuary was a one time deal. At least this time I managed to keep myself from making to much noise. Realizing going at the thing head on would only lead to further pain, I elected to try and sneak past the beast. Not going to lie, but I trembled like a leaf in a rainstorm as I inched my way down the stairs to the ground floor, blunderbuss held high. Some part of me hoped, _prayed_ that a headshot would be enough to kill it.

I was actually making some good progress, but this place seemed to genuinely enjoy fucking with me. My foot came down on what must have been a broken jar, the agonizingly load crunch was like a dinner bell to the beast. I managed a shot, didn't matter though. Last thing I saw were teeth.

* * *

I woke to the smell of decay, eyes staring at peeling walls, and my back on loose floorboards. I screamed, I didn't care anymore. I think I kept screaming as the wolf fell upon once again.

* * *

_"I'm in hell"_ I thought miserably as I lay curled up on the ground, pathetic as a lost child, _"I'm in hell and I'll never leave"_. My eyes kept ghosting around the edges, straining to peer past the gloom of the room.

_"I'll stay quiet"_ I thought _"it can't find me if I stay quite. Eventually it'll just leave"_. Yet again what meager hopes I'd gathered shattered once more. Silence bought me time, but either by scent or boredom or just because the almighty despise me, soon enough the beast simply just stalked into the room.

Didn't even bother fighting back this time.

* * *

I'd given up on the gun after, what, the tenth try? I'd mustered a few more attempts to use it against the beast, but while it gave the thing pause, it was never enough to kill it. Damn thing had -half- its face blasted off and still had enough strength to rip open my throat.

I tried running. Bad idea; wolfy was leagues faster than me.

Now, I found myself inspecting the strange, 'device' -calling it a weapon still felt odd- the zombie babies had given me. Looking at it now, I noticed a sort of large, metal trigger attached to were the handle joined the blade. Giving it an experimental pull, I bit back a curse as the blade swung backward, turning the contraption into an over-sized cleaver with a raucous clang, _and_ nearly splitting my damn head in half!

It only took a moment for indignant anger to turn ice-cold horror as my eyes went wide at the noise, the consequences sinking in. I've honestly lost track of how many times I'd seen wicked clouded eyes, but I've seen them enough for some part of me to instinctively recoil in fear. I shut my eyes as the beast rushed to attack, all the while I swung the cleaver-saw with reckless abandon. Except this time instead of the feeling of claws tearing me, I felt something new; the feeling of steel digging in to soft flesh.

I opened my eyes to see the beast now sported a sizable wound across its forearm, right where the Brachialis meet the biceps, rendering most of the limb largely unusable, and the cleaver itself now shone with fresh crimson. I wasn't given long to appreciate my handiwork, the beast diving in soon after, intent on avenging its damaged limb. I just barely scrambled away in the nick of time, swinging again and aiming for the beasts ribs, specifically between the fifth and sixth, right were the lungs resided. As I kept my distance as best as I could, trading blows with the beast and somehow managing to come out ahead, due in large part to the cleavers range over the wolves arms, I began to notice something.

An odd sort of familiarity settled into me as I held the cleaver. It took me a good few seconds to finally realize _why. _I was wielding, what was essentially an over-sized bone saw, and though I never used one the way I was currently doing so, I was more than familiar with using one.

My breath was coming in even pants now, my body setting in a routine I was ever so familiar with, all the while the beasts movements grew ever more sluggish, sides and arms cut and carved with -admittedly novice- surgical precision.

Still, the beast found it within itself to gather what remained of its strength and threw itself in one last desperate attack, but I'd already found my key to survival, swinging the blade upwards I caught the beast between its throat and chest, ripping open its trachea and cleaving down the sternum. With one last ragged scream it fell to the floor, bloodied, weak and utterly incapable of any further movement. I knew what I had to do. Switching the weapon back its its quicker, more compact saw form, I drew in closer, took a deep, rot filled breath, and sent the blade screaming down upon the wolfs head like a guillotine.

For how long I stood there, staring at the beasts mangled form, I cannot recall. All I remember was the feeling of my grip tightening on the saws handle, odd static filled my ears and a red haze fell upon my eyes. With desperate, demented fervor, I brought the blade down on the beast again, then again, and again, and again, andagainandagainandagin_andagainandagainandagai-_

I collapsed to my knees, caked head to toe in blood, as I finally recognized the odd static filling my ears.

It was the sound of me screaming.

Blackness crept into my vision, followed suite by blessed silence. At last, my body collapsed in its entirety, unable and unwilling to maintain any semblance of wakefulness any longer.

* * *

I woke to the smell of antiseptics, eyes staring at sterile white walls, and my back to a soft bed, clothes soaked in a layer of sweat. Forcing myself upright, my mind ran a mile a minuet as it combed through the memories of what had recently transpired. In an instant I was out of my bed, keeled over a trashcan and emptying the contents of my stomach, as if I'd just gotten of a five hour flight.

"Glad to see you back on your feet so soon " the sudden voice made me jump out of my skin, before relief flooded me in entirely. How long had it been since I heard another speak? And whats more, the voice of one whom I deeply respected?

I tilted my head back a little, and despite my burning throat, despite my aching eyes I smiled. Smiled at the familiar worn face, graying hair, and kind orange eyes of Doctor Stein. And I knew then.

_I was free..._

_..._

_..._

_At least for the moment._

* * *

**And that about wraps it up for this chapter.**

**And if it wasn't obvious before, then let me say it right now, the canon train has been derailed! Its conductor has been hogtied, thrown into the caboose and the rest of the engine sent into overdrive straight of a cliff!**

**So just give whatever opinions you guys have, flames, hate, insults, praises I'll gladly take it all!**

**This has been N3Ber1us and thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3:A Normal Day

**So, after a couple months rewriting this I've decided to cut my chapter lengths. Sorry for the long wait and the fact this is all that comes of it, but I've found it easier to write small bite sized chunks of content rather than something spanning 3k words. Hope the new format is to your liking.**

* * *

Waking(1)

"Holding it down well I see" I flinched reflexively at the noise, though as a whole I've managed to cut down on it after the last nurse caught me halfway from throwing myself of my bed. Glancing up from the bland hospital food I'd been playing with, I saw Dr. Franklin Stein settle himself at the edge of the open doorway.

"Little to gamy for my taste doc" I managed with a slight smile. Even now, after 6 months I still wasn't quite sure what to think of the doctor. Even then Dr. Stein was not an easy man to read. For starters, the good doctor really didn't -look- like one, no rather he had a physique more fitting untowards an Atalasian soldier than a man of medicine. Then again, not many doctors come from the military to civilian life after all.

I'd seen the man transition effortlessly between cold, military calmness to a warmer, friendlier personality, and even now I find it hard to know which personality is more common.

"Still, best to soldier on, regardless of the taste, you know how our bodies get after a shock to the system, you need the energy" huh, judging from the tone of his voice he was in the latter mode right now.

Giving him a mock salute, I resumed the laborious task of shoveling the tasteless meal down my uncooperative throat, when Dr. Stein suddenly spoke up again.

"And Jaune?" I pulled my gaze towards him once more "Sorry for the trouble I've caused you, I should've argued more with the board to get you more time, the current schedule for you is untenable; your burning yourself out"

"Its fine!" I replied sheepishly, one hand scratching the back of my neck. Gods, I'd been so shocked when he apologised, and for something so silly as well "Besides" I argued "I made this choice, I've no right to drag down those who've spent their whole lives working for this moment just cause my rookie ass jumped ship at the last moment"

Even as I said that, I couldn't help but feel a ball of guilt form in the pit of my stomach, made all the worse by the blank look the good doctor was sending me. Eventually he relented, giving one last worried glance before leaving me to finish my meal.

As I scrapped up the last dregs of long since congealed potatoes, Dr. Stein shuffled back into the room a beat up school bag tucked under his arm.

"Here," he said, tossing it towards me "your things and a change of clothes, head down to the lobby when your done changing, your rides here"

My reflexes were better than I remembered when it came to catching my bag, though I honestly tried hard not to think of the reasons why. "Uh, ride? Doc you didn't have to call a cab, I'm well enough to go by myself"

"Well, let's just say a rather, ah, adamant individual insisted on taking you back herself" he said chuckling lightly to himself. I mulled over what he said for a moment, not liking what I was hearing.

If Doc was talking about -her- then perhaps I was better off here in the hospital.

"Well then, better get dressed and we can send you back home" he said, a winning smile on his face. "And one last thing" he called out once more "take care, a doctor can't save lives if he's the one currently in need of saving after all"

* * *

Giving my last goodbyes to the receptionist, I made my outside, taking in one last breath to compose myself before heading out…

And then almost immediately choking on said breath as the -searing- rays of light tried to burn away my retinas.

Instinctively I brought up an arm to shield my eyes, I found myself reeling for a moment. It was as if I'd seen the sun again after years upon -years- of darkness.

Some small part of me felt inclined to go back to the shade, while the larger, more rational side reminded that I'd recently experienced quite a shock to the system, not to mention the rather, visceral night terrors. It was only natural I'd react negatively to new stimulus. At least, that's what I told myself.

After taking a moment to calm down, I finally felt confident enough that my eyes had adjusted back to the light and lowered my arm.

And for a moment I was taken aback by the sight before me. The early morning sun peeked over the industrial skyline of the city, the freshly falling snowflakes catching the lights and scattering it in prismatic waves. The winters always came sooner to Argus, being that the settlement nestled closer to Mantles frozen north, and tended to last longer too. Even now in the tail-end of winter, the snow fell generously over the city, coating it a soft white.

In any other context it would have been a most mundane of sights, something I'd lived with for the better half of a year now. But after last night I found myself reveling in taking a breath that didn't smell and taste of rot and antiseptics. To set my sights on something that wasn't a dilapidated clinic.

My brief reverie was broken the moment my eyes darted over a familiar black car that lay parked across the now deserted street. Normally Terra would be the one behind the wheel, she was the one with more driving experience after all. But from the look on Saphron's face, I doubt she had much choice in the matter.

My sister looked more haggard than usual; her usually groomed hair was a mess, with golden strands sticking out all over. Bags lined under her eyes. Some part of me realized how odd it was I noticed all of this from quite a distance away, but I killed those thoughts, I had more pressing issues now.

Giving her a small wave to catch her attention, her eyes locked on to me. I squirmed under her gaze, the dead look in her eyes sending a chill up my spine.

There was only silence as I jogged up to her. When I got there she only offered a quick look over before silently settling back in the car. Obediently I followed suite. For a few minutes that's all that happened even as the atmosphere in the car grew heavier.

"Jaune, what happened to you?" Her sudden question was brusque, yet was laced with concern. "Be honest with me"

I stopped in the motion of fiddling with the hem of my hoodie. I eyed her out of the corner of my eyes, swallowing heavily, never before had I known a throat could get so dry.

"When the hospital called and said you passed out I-I tried heading there as soon as I could, but Terra was busy and Adrian, I-!" She took a shaky breath. "8 hours I've been kicking myself for leaving you out like that"

She glanced to rear view mirror and to my immense shock I saw tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.

Saphron took another breath, brushing aside a few stray locks of hair with a slightly shaking hand, before focusing back on me.

I leaned my head back into the seat, my mouth feeling drier than ever.

"What happened, Jaune?" she pressed again, this time gentler though "Please- its not li- you haven't gotten into trouble in a while"

The unabashed -concern- in her voice made me come up short. All I could do was sit there and feel another ball of shame well up next to the guilt from earlier.

I haven't seen this side of my sister in a -long- while. I'd gotten used to her fun loving self that she'd grown into over the years. Sure it was exhausting at times, but compared to this? I... haven't the faintest clue how to deal with it.

Even then what was I supposed to say? "Hey sis! Sorry I collapsed on ya, I was busy getting whisked away to a horrible nightmare place to fight a werewolf with a saw and die!" seriously, that was it? Not only would she rant at me, I doubt she would even believe it.

… I died, I -died- last night, the realization hit me like lightning as old horror returned anew. I'd died and nobody, not even my own family realized it.

All of the sudden I couldn't see properly, static filled my vision and I felt my heart hammer in my chest. I couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe, couldn'tbreathe, cou-

"-aune! Jaune!" Saphron's clear, solid voice cut through the panic in an instant. "Calm down Jaune" she eased, one hand gripping my own. "Breath in and out. In and out, there better?"

I did as she advised. Sure enough I felt my blood pressure ease, and my vision finally return, albeit slightly blurry.

As I sucked in another breath I looked my sister in the eye and decided right then. I'd caused her enough trouble, I had no intention of causing further heartache. Even if it meant lying through my teeth.

"I-uh..." I managed after a second, trying my damnedest to bullshit up a good enough lie. "Test were coming up next week... guess I worked myself to hard. Didn't expect to just... keel over like that"

Lies, all of it but it was the only story I could come up with that conformed to most of the facts and was believable enough for it. It was -technically- true, even if it only served to further exacerbate the crucible of regret and guilt that was once my gut.

I slid further down in my seat, fully aware that none of what I said had assuaged her concerns.

"Guess I'm still too stubborn for my own good huh? Sorry, old habits die hard"

Saphron sat there and stared at me silently for a moment, absorbing the -lies- story I'd given. Soon she sighed, head held in her hands. Such a small gesture, yet I could not help but feel like a child again, making the same half-assed excuses to her whenever I came home with one to many bruises.

If it were not for the current situation, I would've laughed at the memory.

Soon enough, she relented a half-hearted smile, more for her own sake then mine, and turned back to the driver's seat.

"You, oh you are in -so- much trouble, do you understand that? Gods Jaune don't do this, not again okay? Look I know how you feel, but there's nothing wrong with having too rely on someone for a helping hand, especially if it's for family okay?" She lectured

"Oh and one more thing," she said as she glanced up towards the rear view mirror "you're staying at home with us, no it's, ands, or buts. You will take a break, relax and Brothers help you if you even -think- about moving. Dr. Stein will understand. So just take it easy for a week, and let me be a sister, you can do that right, for me?"

Despite myself, I managed to smile tiredly. -There- was the Saphron I knew, the one I'd known for 15 years.

"Yeah I get it" I replied "thanks sis"

I couldn't see her face, but I could hear the concern bleed off and ease settle in place. "Rest now little brother, you earned it"

I smiled at that and finally eased myself into my seat. Looking out the window, I watched the early morning streets fill with life.

It was a beautiful day in Argus.


	4. Chapter 4: Yharnam, City of Blood

Dream(3)

After a trying week, I was ready to put the past few days behind me as I laid to rest. Despite the promise of taking it easy, it just felt wrong to sit around being babied by my sister, and after much begging, prodding, and no small amount of help from Terra, I managed to get Saphron to at least let me clean around the place.

It was quite soothing really, the chores I mean. Now one may scoff at the idea that the banality of the daily grind may in anyway, shape or form be considered -enjoyable-, but it was a nice change of pace from the last few months. Maybe it was because I grew up with it, my sister's always did say I had great house husband qualities, but I digress. Regardless, it was, in the very literal sense, just what the doctor ordered.

And tomorrow, I'd start attending classes again, and never before have I ever thought I'd long for the academics as a bastion of normalcy in life, but after all that chaos I'd gladly take anything to anchor to at this point. Sure there were still some things to work out, but those could be dealt with at a later date.

Stretching out my sore body, I let myself fall asleep to the satisfying crackles and pops as my muscles unwound.

* * *

I knew I was in for a rude awakening when the first thing to hit me was the overwhelming stench of rot.

I barely even managed to recognize the -thing- in front of me as my old tormentor. Huge chunks of it were little more than crimson colored clumps of viscera from when I'd gone nuts, sparsely interspersed with ragged clumps of blackened fur. And the flies; Merciful Brothers, the not-beowolf was nothing more than a haven for flies and maggots, eagerly feasting on the eviscerated corpse.

Hurriedly scrambling backwards, I felt bile rise from my throat and I desperately fought to keep my dinner down.

"No…" I whimpered.

"Here again?! Why? Not again, please…" my voice rose, before my hands clamped down in my mouth, remembering the consequences of my prior outburst.

Though mercifully, this time it seemed nothing had taken note of my freakout… yet.

Irregardless, I couldn't stay for long. Staying in one place was a death sentence. Last time I did, I was torn to shreds by a beast. Besides, I still -thankfully- possessed my weapons from before, so at the very least I could defend myself. So it was, with much trepidation, I took my first steps to this strange new world I'd found myself in.

If only stayed, maybe things would be different…

The sun hung low in the sky, bathing the cobblestone streets in a dull orange light, and casting strange, long shadows from the myriad of lamps and fences. Despite all the horror this world had thrown my way, I could not help but marvel at it all.

Before me stood a city the likes of which dwarfed all that I'd ever known. It made Argus look like a mere hovel in comparison; great Gothic spires rose to the heavens, the intricate brickwork of dozens upon hundreds of Mantle-era homes and compounds honeycombed together, intersecting and interlacing to form an urban crush of such density. It was as if they built with nothing to fear; as if there were no Grimm to impede them.

It was undeniably beautiful, which only served to compound how -off- the whole place felt. So much of it looked like it'd long since gone out of maintenance; wrought iron fences bent and rusted, ancient stonework cracked and crumbled. And coffins, Brothers the coffins. Lining the walls, and stacked high in piles, It was as if there were more bodies than earth to bury them in.

And an eerie, pervasive -silence- persisted all around. It was somehow worse than everything else; a city this massive, and not a soul in sight, just the ghostly howling of the wind.

"Just, what happened here?" I asked aloud. That was the million lien question now was it? The thought stuck with me even as I crept out of the courtyard that made up the front of the clinic, (and it was indeed a clinic, a rather expansive one at that) and made my way into the streets proper.

All the while I was on my toes as I inched down the empty street, blunderbuss raised up high as a preemptive measure.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an unexpected sight. A person! My face lit up as I all but sprinted toward the man. "Hey! Sir! Can you help me, I-!?"

Whatever else I had to say died in my throat. What joy I had was quickly replaced with a mounting sense of dread. From a distance, and shadowed under the dying light of the sun he'd looked normal enough, but as I skid to a halt mere meters from him, the truth of the couldn't have been more clear. A face, while still recognizably human, was twisted and malformed, hair growing wildly, eyes glazed over and pupils crushed. His proportions were grotesquely disproportionate, arms and torso to long, legs set in semi-permanent squat. It was a human, but stretched too thin and deformed like a lump of errant clay. In one hand he held a torch, and in the other he dragged a large woodsman's axe.

"H-hey… are you, uh…"

The man, if it could even be called that anymore, tore it's blank gaze from the ground to stare directly at me. It sent chills down my spine; I didn't know eyes that dead could ever convey such primal -rage-. "You…" he snarled, grip tightening around the axe...

I barely managed to scramble back in time, not at all anticipating that the man would lunge forward with his makeshift weapon. "All your fault!"

"Wh- what are you even talking about!" I didn't want to fight this man. There was clearly something very wrong with him! No, even more than that, I just didn't want to take another's life! I choose my future specifically to avoid such a possibility! All the same, my right arm was already gripping the cleaver. "Please! I don't even know where I am!"

Either he could not hear me, or simply didn't care, as he continued to wildly, albeit clumsily, swing his axe around "Your fault! You're not welcome here!"

To be frank the man before me was far less of a threat in comparison to the not-beowolf, even a novice like me could see that. And yet I still couldn't bring myself to fight back. Back then that -thing- was a monster but now… right now this was still a -person-, horribly warped but regardless! I became what I am to save lives, not take them! I did the only thing I could do then.

I ran. Or at least tried to. Problem was I was caught between a rock and a hard place; the street cut off in a dead end in front of me and a locked gate from behind. Running back to the clinic would do me no good, it would be my first night here all over again.

As I was racking my brain for a possible solution, the man came in with another overhead smash that sent me screaming backwards. Instead of hitting the wall, however I instead smashed into something hard and metallic with a resounding snap that… wasn't from my bones surprisingly. No, rather it was the sound of a metal implement coming into place.

Just then a ladder came down from… somewhere with a resounding crash that momentarily stunned both me and my attacker. I didn't even think about the implications anymore, I saw a way out and made for a mad dash towards it as my previous foe remained dumbfounded by the turn of events. By the time he seemed to realize what was going on, I was already well up my way to -relative- safety.

And in the nick of time as well. Down below the man seemed to continue his frenzy but did not pursue. Given the state of his eyes, with pupils crushed and blocking the cornea, his vision must have been terrible if not outright terminated. On the other hand, he may have simply been too consumed by bloodlust to do anything else. Unnervingly his blows were beginning to warp the -solid- iron ladder.

Much to my surprise, I found not a roof but instead more street, the city seeming to simply grow ever upwards. Exhausted from both the climb and the earlier chase, I collapsed by a window, gasping for air as I propped myself up against the wall...

"Is someone out there?"

And then nearly leapt out of my own skin at the voice seemingly coming from nowhere. Though thankfully, unlike the previous encounter this one was undoubtedly human, if a little weak. "Yes! H-hello?"

"That voice, a Hunter? No, a foreigner?!" The man's surprised exclamation was interrupted by a bout of harsh coughing. "Gods, an outsider, and out on the night of the Hunt no less. Yharnam truly has no mercy, does it?"

"Wait, wait! Yharnam? The Hunt? What are you talking about?!" I pleaded trying to get a better look at him through the barred windows, but could only make out a faint silhouette through the thick curtains. "I don't even know how I got here!"

"You don't even?... The gods are crueler than I imagined. I-I'm sorry, but I can't help you. My legs gave out long ago and the door… surely you've seen them, the beasts I mean." With each word, I could practically see the man crumple in on himself.

"You're welcome to stay though. The incense" he gestured with a rail thin arm to the lantern beside the window "it should keep the beasts from getting to close, it's scent drives them off somehow."

"I… I see" I muttered, drifting back to where I was seated a moment earlier. "I… I understand, sorry to have been a bother."

"Don't lose heart yet good Sir. If you've managed to make it to me, then at the very least you have a chance. And what's more, at least you've made a friend. The names Gilbert."

I was quiet for a moment, processing his reply. A friend huh, looking up to the window from my spot I answered "Jaune, Jaune Arc pleased to meet you Gilbert." I answered most sincerely, after all what were strangers but friends you haven't met yet, right?

"Jaune… apologies for asking, but would you perhaps have come from down south?"

"South? Uh, no sorry, like I said I'm not even sure -how- I got here." I replied more than a little bit confused by his question.

"Ah, oh well. I suppose Yharnam brings in all sorts. Well then, Jaune, let me give you a gift. It's done me some good, but someone like you could find more use of it then I." Slowly, Gilbert pushed himself upright, pulling something out from his person. A pale, thin arm reach out of the curtain, clutching a glass vial.

I reached up and took the gift, looking it over. The fluid inside was a vibrant red, and it looked like… "Blood?"

"The only good thing about Yharnam," he responded. "Blood from the healing church. Heal wounds, cure diseases… it's the reason I came here in the first place. Slowed my sickness down at least… Go on, take a drink."

I eyes his 'gift' with no small amount of concern as I went over the implications of his answer. "Healing… blood like a transfusion? But, wait no how does that work? What about blood type? Are they not worried about the possible diseases?!"

"Erm, my apologies, blood type? Transfusion? I don't quite follow." I could practically -hear- his eyebrows creasing together. My face flushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, it's just, well I guess you could call me a doctor, or well doctor-in-training would be more accurate."

"A man of medicine then? Is that why you're here?" For once, Gilbert actually sounded… hopeful, a first in this conversation.

"Not necessarily, but…" but what? People here were sick weren't they? Did I need any other reason to help? This was I trained for!

Eyeing the bottle once more, I finally brought it to my lips. It all sounded so strange, so surreal. Something like this, well to say it was a bad idea was like saying Grimm are angry. But hey? It's just a dream right? Not like any of this was supposed to make sense.

It's just a dream.

Only a dream.

Just don't worry about it, I thought as I uncorked the vial.

It's fine, it's just a dream.

* * *

**Yes I live, and sorry for the sudden dry spell, school has been a killer.**


End file.
